Life

Three DIY Ways to Speed Post-Race Recovery

Hold the fancy massage therapist. Your keys to recovery could be right under your own roof.

by Shona L. Halson, Head of Discipline for the Australian Institute of Sport

Recovery from training and performance provides numerous benefits during high-level training and competition. Below is a summary of some of the standard recovery techniques triathletes would be well-served to integrate into their training program.

Sleep

Sleep is extremely important for numerous biological functions, and sleep deprivation can have significant effects on athletic performance, especially when it comes to longer sessions. Evidence suggests that many athletes may be clocking less than eight hours of sleep per night. Increasing sleep or napping may be useful to increase the total number of hours of sleep and thereby enhance performance.

Do it: Keep your bedroom cool, dark and quiet. Eye masks and ear-plugs can be useful, especially during travel. Create a good sleep routine by going to bed at the same time and waking up at the same time, and avoid watching television or using the computer in bed, or watching the clock.

Compression

Many recovery strategies for elite athletes are based on medical equipment or therapies used in patients. Compression clothing is one of these strategies. It has been traditionally used to treat various lymphatic and circulatory conditions. Compression garments are thought to improve venous return through application of graduated compression to the limbs from proximal to distal. The external pressure created may reduce the intramuscular space available for swelling and promote stable alignment of muscle fibers, attenuating the inflammatory response and reducing muscle soreness.

Researchers have found a reduction in delayed onset muscle soreness 24 hours after runners wore compression during continuous exercise. While not statistically significant, there has been a trend shown that a 10k effort can be completed faster when such garments are worn. Subjects wore commercially available graduated compression stockings, with the compression highest at the ankle (18-22 mmHg) and reducing by 70 percent to the top of the stocking, which ended below the knee.

Do it: Compression garments appear to be beneficial for recovery in trained athletes. Recommendations include wearing the garments for at least 60 minutes post-exercise or competition.

Hydrotherapy

Various forms of water immersion are becoming popular with elite athletes. While athletes have been using hydrotherapy for a number of years, we are now beginning to see increased research into water immersion, recovery and performance. The most common forms of water immersion are cold water immersion (CWI), hot water immersion (HWI) and contrast water therapy (CWT), where the athlete alternates between hot and cold water immersion.

It’s important that athletes experiment with a variety of strategies and approaches to identify the recovery options that work best. However, it is known that optimal recovery from training and competition may provide numerous benefits for athlete performance.

Do it: Use appropriate temperatures and duration for water immersion. Research has found positive effects of water immersion in temperatures of 10–15°C / 50-59°F for cold water, and 38–40°C / 100-104°F for hot water, with a duration of 14 to 15 minutes of either cold water immersion or contrast water therapy.

This article is sponsored by 2XU, the official compression partner of IRONMAN.